WELCOME REMARKS
YAB DATO’ SRI HAJI FADILLAH YUSOF
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER AND MINISTER OF PLANTATION AND
COMMODITIES
PEOPLE POSITIVE PALM (P3) FIRST LEARNING SERIES
WORKSHOP LAUNCHING
SALUTATION
1. First and foremost, I would like to express my appreciation to theConsumer Goods Forum (CGF), Human Rights Coalition (HRC), Fair Labor Association (FLA) and International Organization on Migration (IOM) for implementing the People Positive Palm Project (P3 Project), which aims to leverage collective action and eradicate forced labour from the Malaysian palm oil industry in Malaysia.
2. Malaysia’s palm oil sector has been under scrutiny in recent years due to its practices and respect for human rights. This has prompted many companies operating in the country to adopt innovative and responsible business practices. However, the challenge of addressing adverse social impacts remains a difficult one and requires long-term investment and collaboration between businesses, government, and workers.
3. This is further complicated by the current global crisis of COVID-19, climate change, economic recession, and worker shortages. In this context, collaboration is essential to ensure rapid and noteworthy progress in making Malaysia a country that sets a standard of practice for business in the region.
4. The Ministry has welcomes the People Positive Palm Project, which aims to support companies in the palm oil sector to eliminate forced labour from their operations and supply chains. Today’s workshop will focus on Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD), which is a key tool to support responsible business practices and ensure Malaysia is a preferred destination for migrant workers and the palm oil industry. HRDD should not be seen as a burden, but rather as an advantage for businesses. It allows Malaysian businesses to lead the industry by example, enhance their resilience, and secure the exportability of their products globally while setting in place strong systems to anticipate market disruptions in times of crisis.
5. HRDD has been embedded in the legislations of certain countries, to which Malaysian businesses export to. However, this should not be seen as a burden, but rather an opportunity to ensure supply-chainwide collaboration in strengthening responsible business practices and finding innovative solutions to address the challenges. All businesses, from smallholders to multinationals, need access to practical tools to help them implement HRDD and increase their business’ positive impact. People-positive practices will help businesses deliver positive and sustainable outcomes for their workers, their businesses, and their investors.
6. The palm oil industry in Malaysia has the potential to be a trendsetter for other industry transformations, both in the region and globally. To achieve this, all businesses, from the smallholders to the multinationals, need to have access to practical tools that help to implement Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) to increase their business’ positive impact.
7. People positive practices will help businesses deliver positive and sustainable outcomes for their workers, increasing their well-being, and for their business, improving productivity and resilience, for their investors, and meeting their growing demands for positive social impacts in their investment portfolios.
8. Alignment of business and governmental efforts are equally important, to ensure the States’ duty to protect human rights and business responsibility to respect, support and enable each other. With institutional partners such as the International Labour Organization (ILO), International Organization for Migration (IOM), and United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the government of Malaysia will continue to strengthen its efforts to support a peoplepositive approach. This includes collaborative efforts in learning and training, ensuring no one is left behind, including smallholders, and developing people positive policies and action plans.
9. The Malaysian government is already taking steps to further this goal. This includes the implementation of the National Action Plan on Forced Labour (NAPFL), and the planned launch of the NAP on Business and Human Rights. These initiatives will help to ensure that the palm oil industry in Malaysia can become the reference for other industry transformations, and Malaysia can become the trendsetter in the region, encouraging other countries to follow in the path towards People Positive industries, and globally, demonstrating how HRDD can effectively be implemented on the ground.
10. I was informed that today’s workshop brings together leading consumer goods companies and actors in the Malaysian palm oil industry to transform the Malaysian labour market and eradicate forced labour from the country’s palm oil sector. I hope the palm oil sector, through a pragmatic business approach to HRDD, will address root causes of forced labour in a sustainable and structural manner.
11. On this note, I hereby officially declare the First Learning Series Workshop of People Positive Palm Project (P3 Project) open.
I wish you all a successful event. Thank you.
14 MAC 2023